The Maysville Warriors have had a lot of firsts under third year coach Jeff Hall. Hall and the Warriors make another first this year as they make their third straight playoff appearance.
“This is our third year in a row in the playoffs,” Hall said. “That’s something that has never happened at Maysville.
“When I got here, this group of seniors was in their third coach in three years. It would have been very easy for them to say here we go again. But they bought into our program and here we are.”
That first was in jeopardy early in the season when several starters were out with injuries and their return date wasn’t known. But the return of those key players four weeks ago and another one in week eight turned a team that didn’t know if they were going to make the playoffs or not into a playoff team.
First up for the Warriors is Cordell. The Blue Devils are 8-2 with an opening game loss to Thomas and a second loss to Apache before running the table in A-3.
First-year head coach Dustin Beasley has brought in a new offense and a new defense.
“They are running the spread offense,” Hall said. “In their first loss, they were still working on their offense when the lost to Thomas and then lost to a very good Apache team.
“They are going to throw the ball all over the field. This will be only the second time we’ve seen this type of offense.”
The trigger man to this wide open offense is senior Trey Waldrop. Waldrop is the top passer in Class A with over 2,200 yards and 27 touchdowns. He has thrown the ball 252 times and has only eight picks on the season.
He has several players that he throws the ball to, but sophomore Rylan Russell is his favorite target with nearly 800 yards and five touchdowns. Senior Nick Leppke has over 450 yards and 8 touchdowns and junior Donald Mitchell has over 450 yards and 6 touchdowns.
When Cordell runs the ball, Mitchell is the main ball carrier. He has over 550 yards on the ground with seven touchdowns. Waldrop is also a threat on the ground with over 400 yards and seven touchdowns.
Defensively, Cordell runs a 4-4 look.
“We’ve seen six different teams in the district that have run the spread offense against them,” Hall said. “So we’ve seen their defense against what we run.”
The Blue Devils have seven players that have over 80 tackles on the season. Laramie Balzer leads the team with 111 tackles and eight sacks. Trevor Stewart has 91 tackles and 13 sacks and is second on the team in tackles and first in sacks.
Waldrop leads Class A with 9 interceptions and Russell has 4 interceptions.
The Warriors got healthy at the right time and are not a typical No. 4 team out of the district. They are peaking at the right time and looking for a win on the road so they can return home for the second round of the playoffs.
Kick off in Cordell is at 7:30 p.m.
